Upper Dublin moves on with 1st round win against West Chester Rustin

UPPER DUBLIN >> Saturday afternoon’s PIAA District 1-AAAA opening round game against West Chester Rustin was far from No. 6 seeded Upper Dublin’s best game of the season. The performance however, was good enough to advance to the second round with a 44-27 win.
“You got to get through the first round,” Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said. “Getting through the first round guarantees you at least two more games because of the play back and everything like that. You shouldn’t care after the first game what it looked like, you have to get through the first round.”
Upper Dublin was able to win the game on the defensive end of the floor, holding Rustin to under 30 points for the game and forcing it to settle on outside jump shots. The Cardinals prevented Rustin from getting inside looks for the entire game.
For Rustin it too played good defense and by holding Upper Dublin to a score in the mid-40s it figured to have the game right where it wanted it.
Rustin did a particularly good job at keeping an eye on the Cardinals top scoring options in guard Allison Chernow and forward Ashley Barber. Chernow and Barber combined for a modest 12 points.
“I’ll take it, I’ll take it in a minute,” Rustin coach Jim Powers said holding the Cardinal offense to a modest scoring total. “We just didn’t score what we needed to score but to keep them in the 40s, we’ve been saying all year if we can keep teams in the low 40s, high 30s, we’v got a shot.”
The Cardinals were able to get some support from some secondary scorers, something that could be fleeting at times this season for Upper Dublin. Maggie Weglos scored 10 first-half points, while Nicole Kaiser dropped a game-high 12 as she got some good looks on a set play in the half court.
“Maggie played great. She was playing great defensively too. For her to step up and score 10 points in the first half it was exactly what we needed,” Funsten said. “For Nicole Kaiser to come off the bench and lead us in scoring with 12, if you get her the ball down low she’s money, she finishes every time.”
This season has been tough to get a read on the Cardinals. They were good enough to establish themselves as the class of the Suburban One American Conference to earn the six seed in the district tournament but did suffer losses to Continental Conference opponents CB West, South, East and North Penn. A loss to another quality in Germantown Academy rounds out the losses for Upper Dublin thus far on the season.
“Defensively I think we’re at a very high level,” Funsten said. “Offensively the inconsistencies in our shot making and our decision making are why we’re not (a great team). One of our goals this year is to become a great team. And we all agree we’re not a great team, we’re not there yet, we think we can get there.”
As Upper Dublin moves on the through the district tournament, time will tell what kind of team it is. The next test, a strong 11 seed Bishop Shanahan team Wednesday night.